The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in Dallas and Fort Worth: a monthly-updated (and expanded!) guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Dallas-Fort Worth Not to Miss This Month
- Bagels for a Cause: The only thing better than a box of bagels with spreads, salmon, and cookies is when said box supports a good cause. Part of Major Food Group’s Major Good initiative, proceeds from Sadelle’s Highland Park Holiday Box (available for pick-up or delivery on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) will go toward providing 4,000 Dallas families with a holiday meal, via the S.M. Wright Foundation. Reserve your box by Dec. 10.
- Brunch at the French Room Bar: For the first time, The French Room Bar in the Adolphus Hotel is offering daily brunch for the holidays, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Through January 5, warm up next to a roaring fire with a glass of Champagne during midday, or come back for a wintry, French-y dinner with Nutcracker-inspired cocktails by bartender Griffin Blackburn.
- Festivities Galore: Au Troisieme | AT Bistro recently launched a parents’ dream come true with monthly movie nights; kids can rollick on the patio with a chicken tender buffet, while the adults catch a break inside with dinner. This month, “Elf” comes on Dec. 16. (Call the restaurant with a kiddo head count and book ahead via Resy.) Additionally, Catbird is hosting a Holiday Night Brunch with complimentary bubbles on Dec. 18, and the next day, on Dec. 19, there’ll be a tamale-making class. Check other holiday happenings at our Events page.
- Ring in 2025 with a Big Bang: One of the city’s most lavish New Year’s Eve parties is at Namo and Bar Colette. For $350, you can observe chef Kazuhito Mabuchi break down a whole bluefin tuna while lingering around an open bar and a caviar bar. Tastings from the kitchen and binchotan grill are passed around right up until a midnight Champagne toast. Tickets will go fast, so book with haste.
New to the Hit List (Dec. 2024)
Le PasSage, Mirador, The Porch, Princi Italia.
1. Fond Downtown
After running Dallas’s most desirable underground supper club for seven years, Jennie Kelley has transferred her themed tasting menus over to Fond, which she opened with her husband, Brandon Moore, last year. Now, eight-course dinners with optional wine pairings happen once a month, and it’s a hot ticket. (Check Resy for spots, or for earlier dibs, get on their mailing list.) To experience the husband-and-wife’s solid cooking without a time commitment, get in for lunch or aperitivo hour and browse the fall and winter menu with a short rib Frito pie and pistachio-topped pork schnitzel — and don’t forget your Santander Tower parking ticket for validation.
2. Don Artemio – Fort Worth Fort Worth
Deep in the land of nachos and orange queso, this elegant restaurant from northern Mexico turned heads when it opened in Fort Worth’s booming Cultural District in 2022. From monthly Mexican wine dinners to blue corn tortillas nixtamalized from Tlaxcalan corn, Don Artemio is the “real” Mexican restaurant North Texas didn’t quite yet have until creator Juan Ramon Cárdenas and his son, chef Rodrigo Cárdenas, joined up with local hospitality guru Adrian Burciaga. Don’t skip an order of nopalitos fritos, or the weekday lunches sure to send you to taco heaven, or the crepa de barbacoa during long Saturday feasts.
3. Le PasSage Dallas
Travis Street Hospitality, incubator of headliners like Georgie and Knox Bistro, has created immaculate vibes here that channel a luxe Orient Express milieu, but overlooking the Katy Trail. The appeal extends to the cooking, too: crab-stuffed Dover sole with lemongrass butter and halibut in ginger beurre blanc are a result of French tactics from one of Dallas’s most consequential chefs, Bruno Davaillon. Chef Hou Lam “Dicky” Fung’s Peking duck is also mandatory, as are the cocktails by bartenders Mario Martinez and George Kaiho (owner of erstwhile Jettison). It will be a challenge, but save space for one (or four) of pastry chef Dyan Ng’s exquisite desserts that often combine savory ingredients to enchanting effect.
4. Partenope Dallas Downtown Dallas
No one who lives in North Texas needed 50 Top Pizza to know that chef Dino Santonicola’s Neapolitan pizzas are among the best in the world. A little recognition never hurt anybody, though, and for the past two years, the organization’s pizza inspectors have inched Partneope up their list. Watch for the official ranking to be announced September 10 in Santonicola’s hometown of Naples. He’ll travel home for the awards ceremony and meet up with his brother (who also has a top 12 contender, Ribalta, in New York). To celebrate the big announcement here, the salsicca e friareielli pizza and the calzone Napoletano, two favorites of 50 Top Pizza, will be $12 all day at both locations.
5. The Porch Restaurant Knox/Henderson
Whether you’re cozying up on the climate-controlled patio or in a roomy indoor booth, this casual hangout still passes muster since opening nearly 18 years ago. Knowing what to keep constant and when to adapt is a critical survival strategy for Dallas restaurants, one that chef Coner Sergeant, knows well. For example, it’s understood that many want the same roasted tomato soup and buttermilk fried chicken salad each time they come in for classic cocktails and perennial patio feels. Others who like to switch it up will enjoy the newly added “trademarked onion” (yep, you know the one), or the Duroc pork chop with cabbage and apples, or an Oklahoma smash burger that might give competition to the hefty, much-loved Porch burger.
6. Namo West Village
For the first time since its inception six years ago, Namo has extended its monthly omakase dinners into a nightly affair. “Namokase” comes in two forms: A nigiri-only ride for $135 or a full parade with sashimi and small courses for $195. For those who can’t wait until the sun sets for chef Kazuhito Mabuchi’s selection of edomae-style treated fish, the $75 lunch omakase remains a daylight treat. You’ll also want to try one of bar director Rubén Rolón’s new, science-y, peach-influenced cocktails, and don’t neglect sealing a meal with caviar-topped Hokkaido soft-serve. Did we mention there’s a covered patio now?
7. Fortune House – Greenville Ave Lower Greenville
The closest thing to Chinatown-quality delicacies in Dallas can be found in a spiffy restaurant and bar on Lower Greenville Avenue. After branching out from its first warmly regarded Irving location, the second Fortune House serves covetable soup dumplings, pork buns, and scallion pancakes in style. The elaborate menu includes a range of American Chinese favorites — sesame chicken, crab rangoon, General Tso’s chicken — but also goes hard on dishes unique to Shanghai, like stir-fried rice cakes, scallion noodles with poached shrimp, and soup with pork- and shepherd’s purse-filled wontons. Considering options like tea service, sparkling lychee lemonade, and five-liquored Hainan Island Iced Tea, you’ll want to arrive thirsty, too.
8. La Bodega Rotisserie + Goods Bishop Arts
If there’s a season when La Bodega chef-owner Skye McDaniel is particularly on fire, it’s summer. Her organic rotisserie chickens from Pennsylvania Dutch country are a perennial no-fail favorite. But now is the season when she’ll begin incorporating summer melons, peaches, and her personal passion project — tomatoes — into salads, sandwiches, and other specials. Bulgarian froyo with pomegranate molasses or fresh fruit preserves is another no-brainer, nor is picking up a party pack, a pile of conserva-style tinned fish, and a few bottles of sophisticated wine and beer selections for the next gathering.
Find more info here.
9. Mirador Downtown
Since they were unveiled this summer, chef Travis Wyatt’s fish sauce-glazed donuts with Kaluga caviar and gold flake sprinkles have dominated news feeds and our dreams. They’re one reason to reserve a table for Saturday brunch in the sky at Forty Five Ten. Maybe add wagyu short rib and eggs or pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter, or opt for the Afternoon Tea service with three courses including foie gras macarons and caviar tartlets. For weekday indulgences, lunch on the loveliest radicchio, Castelfranco, in brown butter vinaigrette, or a fancy-but-solid burger with gribiche. We’re also impressed with roasted pumpkin pavlova, involving an unusual base of buttermilk ice cream that made us question why the two desserts aren’t combined more often.
10. Via Triozzi Lower Greenville
When the high in the weather app drops below scorching, it’s time to tuck into sweaters … and Italian grub. To prep for the season, chef-owner Leigh Hutchinson has added some new show stealers at her Lower Greenville Avenue standout. Take for instance the prosciutto di San Daniele with thin-sliced pears and fig mostarda, or the hat-shaped cappelletti, stuffed with house sausage and propped up on a pool of garlic-fennel broth. Of course, there’s always the lasagne al forno, so thick and perfect it looks photoshopped, even in real life. Round it off with any of the Super Tuscans, Barbarescos, or Brunello di Montalcinos available for fall drinking pleasures.
11. Far East Pizza Co. Allen
Butter chicken pizza? You better believe it. After going from hot to passé, fusion cuisine is making a comeback as “a natural extension of reality,” as The San Francisco Chronicle termed it. Here’s a perfect example of a cuisine that never went away in a place like Texas, the nation’s second most diverse state. Chef Nidhi Mittal and her husband, Lokesh, serve Indian-spiced meatballs, butter paneer pizzas on naan and housemade flatbreads, and chicken seekh meatball sandwiches at their first restaurant, in partnership with vegan chef Troy Gardner. It comes after four years as a deli-turned-ghost kitchen, making it an American success story in restaurant form — our favorite kind.
No reservations. More info here.
12. Kinzo Frisco
To chef Leo Kekoa, it’s the little things that count. The principle translates to handmade pastry brushes for mopping nigiri with sauces and custom-made sushi knives from Taito City, Japan. As always, seasonal fish is sourced from Tokyo’s famous Toyusu Market. For omakase dinners this fall, held at 5:45 and 8:15, you’ll likely get a taste of shima suzuki (striped sea bass), otoro (fatty tuna), and river-caught sakura masu (cherry trout). A la carte is always an option for quicker service. However you choose to go about it, you’ll want to investigate the upgraded Koshihikari rice after Kekoa was invited into a small circle of buyers earlier this year. The short grain rice is so superb and rare that Kekoa switched up his vinegar recipe to feature its natural sweetness.
13. LaLa’s Taqueria Prosper
Five months after selling his Tender Smokehouse empire, international barbecue consultant and lifelong pitmaster Dante Ramirez opened a taqueria in Prosper, north of Frisco, in September. With his wife and kids on the project, the El Paso-born chef is bringing the sprouting suburb a taste of Mexico’s street tacos. Try the LaLa’s-style, modeled after examples Ramirez found in Los Angeles, with a crispy crust of cheese encircling hand-pressed blue corn tortillas, filled with asada, chorizo, or al pastor, and topped with queso fresco and guacamole. Pro tip: Ask for the secret menu. (Hint: It involves tortas.)
Find more info here.
14. Georgie Highland Park
When it seems like the innovative cooking at Georgie couldn’t possibly get better, it somehow does. Perhaps it’s due to competitiveness chef RJ Yoakum picked up from his basketball years, but constant improvement is a huge motivator, one that recently led to adding some new players to the kitchen team. Sous chef Reilly Brown comes from Press, in Napa Valley, where he helped it maintain a star from a certain tire company. And pastry chef Dyan Ng has worked at notable restaurants along the coasts, beginning with her first executive pastry role for Alain Ducasse in Las Vegas when she was 21-years-old. Together with Yoakum as point guard, they’re crafting one of the most desirable tasting menus in town.
15. Xaman Cafe Bishop Arts
We didn’t need Esquire’s Best Bars in America list to know that good things happen after 5 p.m. in the back of this dimly-lit Jefferson Boulevard coffee shop, where candles and smoldering copal set the mood. Discover an impressive collection of agave-based spirits that go beyond Tequila, like mezcal, sotol, and raicilla. Ask the informed bartenders to walk you through a flight, or try the Ayahuasca cocktail, which strikes a notable balance of sweet, cinnamon-y, and smoky notes. (Yeah, we’re curious about the name, too.) There’s food by chef Monica Lopez, too: light aguachiles, an ancestral seafood soup, and duck breast in pipian sauce.
16. Princi Italia- Dallas Preston Royal
In celebration of this bellwether neighborhood spot’s 13th birthday, founder Patrick Colombo recently gave a facelift to the Dallas location, including Italian chairs, an extended bar, and — in response to noise complaints — acoustical panels. The changes demonstrate Columbo’s decades of hospitality experience. (He originally moved from Washington, D.C. to Dallas in 1982 to manage the Mansion.) And he wasn’t wrong to note that well-to-do Preston-Forest residents might want a Tuscan farmhouse-like restaurant in their ‘hood. Fresh pastas and wood-fired pizzas are menu constants, while refreshes, like veal saltimbocca and Chianti-braised short rib, keep regulars coming back.
17. Cake Bar West Dallas
Claiming to serve “cakes you grew up with” — if your parents happened to be exceptionally adroit at baking moist cakes — Tracy German-Burke moved her sweets shop from Trinity Groves to a bigger spot with more parking near the Medical District earlier this year. Her devout regulars will find all the treats from the former store: ke alls, banana pudding, cheesecakes, cookies, and pound cakes. But now that holiday season is nearly here, and Cake Bar serves all of its sixteen flavors by-the-slice, isn’t it time for a little cake? (Yes, the answer is yes.)
Find more info here.
18. Slow Bone Design District
When you go to Jeffrey Hobbs’ and Ratna Goenardi’s no-nonsense barbecue joint near the Design District, just get everything: the exemplary brisket, the peppery pork ribs, the Sunday and Monday special smoked pork chop, and the massive meat sandwiches on challah buns that go far beyond anything the Earl of Sandwich could’ve dreamed up. Craggy fried chicken brined in smoked water is a must-order, too, as are all of the sides, like horseradish potato salad, brussel flower au gratin, and sweet potato praline. If any guilt surfaces following an inevitable food coma, just reassure yourself with the restaurant’s motto: Barbecue Makes You Beautiful.
Find more info here.
19. Hadramout Restaurant Plano and Irving
If you can’t yet name off examples of Yemeni cuisine, it’s time for a firsthand taste of lamb mandi and chicken zorbian, rice dishes with low-and-slow cooked meats Texans should find familiar — and extremely delish. Hadramout’s locations in Plano and Irving are the type of restaurant where the disposable plastic tablecloths are necessary, and if you so wish, you can experience jalsa dining, aka floor seating, and dig into platters of spiced meats and rice with your hands. For those predisposed to Western traditions, tables and silverware are also available. The lamb is so tender, though, all you’ll need is a spoon.
20. Culpepper Cattle Co – Dallas Deep Ellum
What if we told you that puffy tacos and small batch-Tequila margaritas are on the menu at a classy-casual spot in Deep Ellum — with easy parking? And there’s a hip and spacious patio to drink those margaritas, along with bowls of queso and spinach dip, that will all be perfect once the weather turns? After realizing a second location of the historic Culpepper would be better than a tractor-themed steakhouse, Elias Pope of UNCO hospitality group opened one in the Continental Gin Building this April, making it easier to enjoy Tex-Mex-steakhouse fare without the drive to Rockwall. Mark this: Fajita Fridays have extended into Sizzlin’ Saturdays. That means fajitas and fixin’s are $10 during lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
